Madrid: Joyriding a Hot Air Balloon

There I went, to Albuquerque town in the mighty West, thinking I’d get to do the balloon experience. Couldn’t, though. I could only book a weekday and they wouldn’t fly me if not on a weekend. So I was left to wonder what may have been.

Recently I decided to stop wondering. I googled "hot air balloon rides around Madrid", and immediately found about 15 balloon companies in the Madrid metropolitan area, all located at about 30 minutes drive from the city, all at the same price, and all offering the same fun experience of getting up at the crack of dawn. Oh joy!

The reason why balloon riding always happens at the crack of dawn is because the flight benefits from the atmosphere being all at a homogeneous temperature. When the sun rises, the atmosphere warms up, and it’s harder for the pilot to control the balloon.

So if you’re going up and above on a balloon during the summer, chances are you’re told to be at the meeting point at around 7 am at the latest. If you’re one of those un-early birds, better do the flying in winter, since the sunrise is a lot later and you may be lucky to be conjured up at 8 or even 8:30 am.

I’d heard plenty about how cold it is up there. Wrong! Never mind pop culture, all balloon companies debunk the myth in their websites: wear what you’d normally wear for the time of year you’re flying on.

If it’s the heat of summer, a t-shirt will do. If it’s the coldest January winter, by all means wear your warmest winter jacket, gloves, scarf, etc.

And why is that? Well, it actually very easy to explain: The balloon joy rides for tourists never go above 800 or 900 meters (1000 yards), that is, not high enough for the air temperature to become really cold. In fact, it barely changes. If anything, during the summer, you may get hotter as the sun raises and you’re fully exposed to it without any shadow to hide under.

So, just wear what you would at ground level. And don’t fret about the wind. If it’s TOO windy, you won’t be flying anyway. Voila!

There are a number of hot air balloon models. The most frequently used for joy rides are those powered by butane gas. That’s right, the regular gas used in kitchens or gas stoves.

One always conjures up the image of a helium powered balloon going up up up into the stratosphere, but that’s just not how it is for the touristy variety of rides.

First of all, what’s enjoyable about the normal gas balloons is that they won’t go so up above ground that you’ll miss all you see, I mean, what's the purpose if you can't enjoy the sights?

Second and most important, the helium balloons are hi-tech stuff, and expensive. It’s kind of difficult to amortize the rides with regular tourists, who won't feel inclined to fly if the 4 hour experience costs a months salary.

Speaking of that, the standard price per person at all companies around Madrid is 150 euros per person, some 190 US dollars.

The butane gas balloons don’t have any navigation aid, save the pilot's experience to read the wind. All right, they also carry one altimeter and one radio for ground control, but that's it.

The pilot can’t really “tell” the balloon were to go, it will follow the course of the wind, and indeed the pilot has one mechanism to control, more or less, how to move around – that’s the altitude. The pilot “reads” the wind, and will apply warm air to the balloon to go up and catch the wind drift, or will let the air within the balloon cool off to go down, etcetera.

Speaking of cold and hot air, here's the reason why balloons are tear-shaped: The wide part on top helps capture the bulk of hot air, while any remains of cold and heavier air stay on the lower, narrower part. The big wide part on top, which can hold about 3000 liters of hot air, facilitates creating a sufficient mass of different, lighter temperature for ascending.

Once the party of balloon flyer wannabes meet at the appointed time, the crew invites all passengers up a jeep, where the balloon is loaded, and they shuttle you off to the take off location. That’s usually an open field big enough to “unwind” the HUGE balloon and inflate it.

It’s got to be a huge area, considering the company usually flies two balloons at the same time. It's also usually an area where the flight route will be maximized, that is, the take off happens where the sights are already nice, instead of in an airfield in the middle of nowhere.

The crew starts shouting for help to unload the basket, the balloon itself, and to prepare it for inflation. So the passengers participate in the fun all along, helping unload, inflate, support upright and everything else that needs preparing before the flight.

Mind, the crew smartly carry off the technically delicate operations, such as heating the cold air in the balloon. They appreciate dummy tourists (like me) helping with the cold air part, which is achieved by simply holding the sides while a common but powerful fan blows cold air into the balloon, but when it’s time to turn on the heat (literally), they take care of that themselves.

The cold air part is a sight to see. It happens in exactly the same way as one would blow a a tiny birthday party balloon, just instead of using one's mouth and lungs, there's this huge fan that produces the same effect. It only takes about 10 minutes to have the balloon in pretty good shape, and then the hot air operation starts.

The basket for tourist rides fits 8 people, plus the pilot. At ground level, it looks too small for 8 adults, but what do you know, it fits 8 adults comfortably, four on each side, the basket is split in two compartments, and the pilot’s, who shares his meager space with four 80 littler butane bottles.

The sides on each compartment are padded, and there are some handles at hip level. These perks aren’t really for the flight, but for the landing, which is another story altogether.

The basket is sturdy, fit for bumping into tree tops (which the pilot does just for giggles, and giggle we did indeed) and fit for falling on the ground with a mighty THUD and never feeling the slightest scratch.

There’s only one part of the whole ride that’s bumpy, and that’s the landing. So, they “train” you before take off. The pilot will explain once, twice or as many times as it takes, how one needs to prepare for landing, and how one must behave during the landing.

It’s never a single knock down affair, it’s always 3 or 4 bumpy bumps until the balloon stops. It’s, in a word, hilarious. The pilot explains the whole deal very clearly: The balloon never stops on the first bump into the ground, it will take off again, then bump down again and so on, until it stops.

Experience tells these pilots that they knock it down at the third or fourth try. Believe me, you’ll have fun in the landing! Chances are you’ll end up knocked down on the side, and really, it’s totally hilarious.

Once the balloon is on the ground, again the crew will ask for help to pack the monster thing. It’s huge, one never believes it’ll fit the same bag where it came off from, but of course it does. Putting it away is as much fun, with all passengers pitching in, as preparing to take off.

Who knows how it works elsewhere, but it seems it’s pretty much a standard practice around here for balloon companies to complete the tour with a … what? Breakfast? Brunch? Lunch? Depends on how your clock ticks, I guess.

Considering that during summer one must be at the meeting point at around 7 am, it means one got up mighty early.Then there is the preparation, the actual flight which runs for about 90 minutes, the repackaging, and back to the meeting point.

So that means about 3 or 4 hours of exercise (ahem), which are properly compensated with food and drinks at home base, and everyone has a sort of companionable breakfast (or whatever fits your body clock), which is followed by a champagne cup to celebrate we all just flew a balloon.

All in all, pretty cool!